Tuesday, 20 February 2007

The fact that the Chinese New Year is here has meant my IM has been quiet the last couple of days. Gong Xi Fa Cai!

Year of the pig. Hmm I like it already, yum yum!

The weekend was a bit of a surffest here in Bali.

First Sanur on Saturday, We drove through Denpasar looking at car yards, we are looking to buy a car instead of paying someone a couple of million a month, as we do now. It was hot and we had the boards on the roof so it made damn good sense to slide through Sanur and see what's what.

Tide was low getting lower so we parked and made our way to a warung on the beach. We sat and ate. Then off we went. Damien and Maxi headed for this left and right peak just off shore and I went out to the reef in front of the Grand Hyatt. Ok I cut the hell out of the bottom of my feet but to tell you the truth, it was worth every slice. This would have to rank in my top 5 surfs of all time. I read yesterday that Indo Surf rate it as one of the top 10 right handers in the world.

So here I am, it's a slight breeze across the wave, the sneakers are 5-6' and there is me and a kiwi out there! Go figure. I stayed for about 2 hours, actually I paddled in when we were joined by a third. I was spent. I had caught about 20 waves in the two hours. The adrenalin high is still with me and today is Tuesday!

So on Sunday we got in the car and headed to Medewi. Well looking at the map one can be fooled to think it's a short drive but you get stuck int behind trucks and cars that should have been relegated to the scape heap eons ago and well you have to just wait to get around them. The road is like all Bali roads, insufficient. The amount of traffic is huge. All containers etc have to come down this road from the ferry port. In fact everything from Java that is shipped in and out would come along here.

Anyway 3 hours later, just when people in the car were starting to get edgy we arrived. We drove down to the beach some 100m from the main road and feasted our eyes on this amazing left hnder that just seemed to never end. It ran along the point and down into the bay. I was drooling, especially since I was still on the high from Sanur. We decided once again to have lunch. This strategy had served us well the day before and we headed into the restaurant right on the point. The food was good and the hotel we were in would let the kids swim in their pool for 20 000 a piece so it looked like we were all sorted for post eating excursions.

The entry into the water is over millions of stones, round like river stones. Except they had barnacles and sea sludge which meant your foot sort of slid in between until it got caught. On already sore pins I endured the walk out (Just so you do not fret, I bought Reef Booties yesterday!) So I slip past two guys in wellies fishing and finally start paddling out through the white water.

Did I tell you that there was no one out there at this point? Sorry i should have. I paddled out to where the take off spot was and rested, it was a hard slog just getting this far!. After about 3 or 4 minutes a set came in, I wasn't quite out far enough so I paddled over the first and heading out into the slot for the second. Whoosh! This wave was an easy ride. Damn shame it was on my back hand.

I started paddling out and having missed paddling onto another wave got caught inside. And guess what happened? My leg rope snapped! How different! That is 3 in 2 months. Argh! One wave. That was all I had caught. Here is a guy I snapped a little later on to show you what I missed out on. Urmm... Bugger?

The other shots above is of Gabi the boys and their uncle Damien at the drink stall right on Medewi point. The shot from the point back across the bay at the village itself. It is what one thinks of when you think of Bali. Boats, terraced rice fields, mountains and as the grey clouds were soon to show, rain.

Anyway there is a nice swell running at the moment. This morning I dropped the boys at school and headed down to Canggu for another session. Perfect lefts and these sneaky rights that only Andrew and I had spotted were coming in. What more could you want?

To say my surfing has improved a hundred fold since coming up here is a slight understatement. But I am loving it and seems to balance the workload.

So I will upload this, which is a long winded process in it's self and write again soon.